For many years sump pumps have been employed in low locations, e.g., basements of homes and business buildings, to protect against undesired accumulations of water such as may occur as a result of heavy rains, sewer blockages, etc. It is not uncommon for these sump pumps to fail either by reason of electrical power failure, such as often occurs as a result of a bad storm, or by reason of a functional failure in the pump or its motor. To guard against such malfunctions supplemental, battery operated, pumps are employed in the sump to take over when the primary pump fails. One such apparatus is described in my prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,634,842. However, it is still possible for failures to occur in the supplemental pump or its power supply. While the likelihood is small that failure of both the main pump or its power supply and the supplemental pump or its power supply will occur, there are often situations where it is important to guard against that unlikely possibility. For example, a suburban bank may have its computer located in the basement. That computer and the data stored therein represents a very sizeable investment and it is just unthinkable to permit it to be subjected to water damage, or being put out of operation by reason of water in the basement. In such situations it is extremely important that any malfunction in either the pumps or their power supply be brought to the attention of appropriate personnel so that remedial action can immediately be taken.
The necessity for such supervisory protection against detrimental conditions is not limited to commercial buildings. For example, there are many homes that have expensively furnished recreation or family rooms in the basement. Owners of such homes are desirous of having the same degree of protection.
Furthermore, in both homes and commercial establishments there is increasing use of other devices for protecting against detrimental conditions, e.g., fire alarms, burglar alarms, freezer temperature alarms, etc. Often these devices are sold and installed as individual units; however, this will usually involve some redundancy of components. In the present invention provision is made for connecting the sensors for such malfunctions, etc., e.g., heat or smoke detectors, burglar alarm switches, freezer temperature detectors, etc. This eliminates the redundancy of components since only the sensors for such other malfunctions, etc., are required, along with the associated wiring, and usually will effect a monetary saving since the redundancy has been eliminated. Furthermore, it results in a centralization of the alarm indications. The present invention also makes provision for remote indication of the malfunctions, etc. One of such indications is in the form of an automatic telephone dialer which can summon assistance by means of an appropriate message.
Thus, the present invention relates to a sump protective apparatus which supervises the equipment involved and supplies suitable alarm indications by reason of the malfunction of the various components and which also can signal the existence of various other undesired conditions in a building.
Further objects and advantages will become apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the drawings.